MAY BIRD AND THE EVER AFTER

Age Range: 11 - 13

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 2005ISBN: 0-689-86923-1Publisher: Atheneum

The Wizard of Oz meets Beetlejuice in this tale of a ten-year-old loner who starts seeing ghosts, and then receives a plea for help that leads her into the Afterlife itself. As it turns out, the Ever After isn’t much different from Southern California. Centered around the Pit of Despair Amusement Park and the enormous city of Ether, it’s a giant bedroom community, where the dead communicate by Skullophone, vacation at the Towering Inferno Hotel and go to work on Earth each night, haunting their assigned houses. But there are nightmarish monsters too, from ghouls eager to eat your guts to the horrible, genial Bogey Man—all led by shadowy Evil Bo Cleevil, a Dark Spirit out to conquer the entire planet. Narrowly evading all manner of ugly fates, May Bird picks up some unusual companions and escapes the clutches of the Bogey Man by leaping aboard a train bound for her mysterious summoner. First episode of a projected three, this leaves May Bird in full flight through a vividly envisioned setting that’s equal parts terror and tongue-in-cheek. Rare fun. (Fantasy. 11-13)